2020

Being diagnosed with cancer and going through intensive treatment is stressful. So, when treatment ends, family and friends are eager to celebrate. But many cancer survivors don’t feel like celebrating or don’t feel ready to move on with their lives.

A recent study addressed the need for attention to breast cancer survivors after surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation to shed light on the adverse effects of treatment on employment. The hope was that knowing the results could better prepare patients and healthcare providers as well as employers and policymakers.

Compared with the general population, young cancer survivors were far more likely to develop severe and life-threatening health conditions in later life, and faced a significantly higher risk of death, data from a large retrospective study indicated.

A new Canadian study published in Psychooncology (2019;28:792‐798. doi:10.1002/pon.5021) reports that cancer survivors face a range of problems in the workplace, including stigma and misperceptions about their abilities; a higher risk of losing their job compared with healthy controls; a lack of understanding regarding their work abilities, productivity, and reliability; and costs associated with their continued employment.

2017

Moments after the news of Sen. John McCain’s brain tumor reached the internet, he was being pinned with the badge of the cancer warrior. And while arguably no one in the U.S. is more well-positioned to wear the fierce cancer fighter label than McCain, some patients and survivors say it exemplifies how even well-intentioned observers can rely on stock phrases that can sometimes do more harm than good.

2016

Springboard Beyond Cancer provides survivors with online tools to manage side effects from cancer treatment, cope with stress, improve healthy behaviors, communicate better with their health care teams, and ask for support from family and friends.

2014

Cancer typically costs employers about $19,000 annually per 100 employees in lost work time and medical treatments. Lost work time and underperformance at work (presenteeism) due to cancer costs employers $10,000 per 100 workers—more than half of the total costs associated with cancer—and medical and pharmacy treatments cost about $9,100. Employees with cancer are absent 3.8 more days per year than workers without cancer, and also lose the equivalent of 1.8 more days per year to presenteeism.